Round two of the snow today. It's flurrying here but not too serve. Our central heating boiler decided it wanted to down tools last night and we're waiting for the plumber.

I drove up to Maenclochog, our nearest shops, to get some logs for the wood burner. On the way people were clearing the bits of road outside their homes, I saw passerby helping to move a stuck car. The people out walking in the snow, wave as you go by, other drivers take it easy and don't take chances. We purchased our logs with a short discussion on what the snow was like elsewhere in the county.

I always like going to Maenclochog, the little shops there offer much more than the usual cakes, bread, tins and wine, (The Bethesda Sausages are my favorite), they are also little centers of social activity.

About ten years ago I lived in rural Kent, the village shops there were more modern, more impersonal and like supermarkets in miniature. They had become, for want of a better word, corporate.

Maenclochog is not unique in Pembrokeshire, the same could be said of the local shops in Neyland, Milford Haven, St Davids and many other places in West Wales.

I know it is useful to run into a larger supermarket, and we have a few of them which offer great value and nice things. But you can't buy that sense of belonging to a community you can get with the local shops.

(The image with this is from the Sheep here in Woodstock. I finished the painting yesterday. I thought a snow painting would make a change from the snow photos.)